Many saddened shoppers at sea with the sinking of Boston Store at Southridge and elsewhere
Jane Ford-Stewart
GREENDALE - There was shock, sadness and even a bit of "I told you so" among shoppers visiting the Boston Store at Southridge about noon on Thursday, April 19.
It was the day after news broke that all the Boston Stores would soon close, following the liquidation of the parent Bon-Ton, a department store chain that also includes Younkers and Carson's.
The eminent closing also led to a feeling that everyone is on a retail train that might not be going where they want to go. Southridge has already experienced Sears and Kohl's department stores pulling out and now the Boston Store will go, too.
"It's a different world," said Joyce Kling who lives in the town of Norway. "These stores have been here a long time and they're disappearing."
"I remember coming to Sears with my mom," Kling said.
New courses
Boston Store shoppers were left at sea by the announced closing, trying to plot courses to new places where they could find the things they love at the Boston Store, especially clothing.
"It's good quality. It doesn't shrink up," said Sandi Hohrein of Franklin.
The loyal Boston Store shopper wondered where she would be able to find replacements for her dinnerware set if she breaks a plate and how she will be able to add to her set of cookware that originated at the Boston Store.
Some shoppers just looked around and didn't see an island to head for.
"I don't really like anything the way I like this store," said Yadira Calderon of downtown Milwaukee. "I find everything here. It's good, affordable quality."
She had been such a good Boston Store customer that she ended up working for the Southridge store. The warm way the Boston Store staff treated her was why she wanted to work there, Calderon said.
'Disgusted'
West Allis resident Mary Wissing said simply: "We're disgusted that the store is closing. It has quality clothing and good sales."
Even so, she and a few others were critical of all the exclusions in the Boston Store coupons. They couldn't be used for this and the couldn't be used for that, which was annoying; they said and could have driven shoppers elsewhere.
"There's always Kohl's that takes every coupon and discounts on top of coupons," said Karen Nix of Racine.
"I don't think the CEO did a good job with that," Wissing concluded.
Even so she said it's a shame the store is closing: "It's like an institution, a tradition."
Out competed?
Nix, who is occasionally in the area and enjoys stopping in at the Southridge Boston Store has shopped at Boston Store in Racine for some 20 years.
However she said: "They haven't competed very effectively." She has found products that are just as good at other stores for less money, she said.
She used to always go to the Boston Store to find certain things that were not anywhere else. But now, other stores carry those products such as the Clinique line of cosmetics, Nix said.
Now, she just shops the sales at the Boston Store, she said.
Definitely in her camp was Cheryl DeCloux, town of Norway, who said, "I shop the sales and use the coupons. I think everybody does."
Boston booster
However, Carol Konkel of Greendale is a hands-down fan.
"Boston Store has been my favorite store since it opened here at Southridge," she said. "All my clothes I buy here," she said, for herself and for her grandchildren.
"Their brands fit me so well, I don't even have to try them on anymore," Konkel said.
So, what is she going to do now?
"Oh, maybe Macy's or Kohl's on Layton," at 84South in Greenfield, she said.
Her favorite Boston Store memory, though, is from the downtown Boston Store, where years ago she took her little niece to ride on the train.
"She loved that, and the windows at Christmas," Konkel remembered fondly. Her little niece is 55 now, she said.
A lifestyle
Decades of memories also have piled up for Janice Boinski of Franklin, who said, "All my life, we've always shopped at Boston Store. And when they had restaurants, we had lunch at the restaurants."
Her parents took her to see the Christmas windows at the downtown Boston Store and she took her own children to the Boston Store at the Grand Avenue, she said.
She has a long history with the Southridge Boston Store, too, coming to it since she was a young teen. At 16, she got a job at the store.
Even today when she comes home to Franklin, Boinski looks onto a family room filled with furniture that came from the Southridge Boston Store. When she thinks furniture, Boston Store is one of the top three stores for her. Now, she guesses she'll go to the other two — Steinhafels and Penny Mustard, Boinski said.
Clothes came up as a continuing theme of customers, who praised the quality and name brands they found at the Boston Store. Where to go now, Hohrein of Franklin said, "I go to Kohl's and Macy's, but I like the convenience of Boston Store."
Boinski seconded Macy's and added Chico's at Southridge and J. Jill at Mayfair Mall.
